 | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 11, 2001 |
| Summary | Terrorist suicide hijacking |
| Site | South Tower (WTC 2) of the World Trade Center, New York City, U.S. 40°42′38.8″N 74°00′47.3″W / 40.710778°N 74.013139°W |
| Total fatalities | c. 965[a] (2,763 combined with AA 11) |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-222[b] |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | UA175 |
| ICAO flight No. | UAL175 |
| Call sign | UNITED 175 |
| Registration | N612UA |
| Flight origin | Logan International Airport |
| Destination | Los Angeles International Airport |
| Occupants | 65 (including 5 hijackers) |
| Passengers | 56 (including 5 hijackers) |
| Crew | 9 |
| Fatalities | 65 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Ground casualties | |
| Ground fatalities | c. 900 in or near the South Tower of the World Trade Center |
United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-200 carrying 51 passengers and 9 crew members (excluding the 5 hijackers), was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone aboard and causing the deaths of more than 600[c] people in the South Tower's upper levels in addition to an unknown number of civilians and emergency personnel on floors beneath the impact zone. Flight 175 is the second-deadliest plane crash in aviation history, surpassed only by American Airlines Flight 11.
Flight 175 departed from Logan Airport at 08:14. Twenty-eight minutes into the flight, the hijackers injured several crew members, forced their way into the cockpit, and murdered both pilots while moving anyone who remained to the rear of the aircraft. Lead hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi, who had trained as a pilot for the purposes of the attacks, was able to usurp the flight controls once the captain and first officer were eliminated. Unlike the team on American Airlines Flight 11, the terrorists aboard Flight 175 did not switch off the plane's transponder when they took over the cockpit. Thus, the aircraft was visible on New York Center's radar, which depicted the deviation from its assigned flight path before controllers took notice four minutes later at 08:51 EDT. Upon realizing, the ATC workers immediately made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the cockpit of the hijacked airliner, which twice nearly collided with other planes as it recklessly flew toward New York City. In the interim, three people were able to get through to their family members and colleagues on the ground, passing on information to do with the hijackers as well as casualties suffered by the flight crew.
No more than 21 minutes after the hijacking began, al-Shehhi crashed the airplane into the South Tower's south face from floors 77 through 85 as part of an attack coordinated with the takeover of Flight 11, which had struck the upper floors of the World Trade Center's North Tower at 08:46. Media coverage of the disaster that began in the North Tower 17 minutes earlier meant Flight 175's impact at 09:03 was the only one of the four attacks to be televised live around the world. The damage done to the South Tower by the crash and subsequent fire caused its collapse 56 minutes later at 09:59, killing everyone who was still inside. During the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site, workers uncovered and identified remains from some Flight 175 victims, but many victims have not been identified.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ National Institute of Standards and Technology (2005). Final Reports from the NIST World Trade Center Disaster Investigation (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved May 6, 2023.